Ignacio Coló On The Timeless Bond Of Twin Lives

Through quiet fragments and tender moments, Coló tells a story of shared existence, love, and vulnerability.

Despite their quiet demeanor, Miguel and Eduardo Portnoy could not go unnoticed. Their movements flow in harmony, their style and gestures mirror one another—an unspoken rhythm forged by a lifetime spent side by side. In the golden light of a late afternoon in Buenos Aires in 2016, Argentinian photographer Ignacio Coló first notices the twins near a bus station. He's immediately struck by their presence as they move through the city streets—confident, yet captivatingly singular.

They slip from his view, swallowed by the currents of the city. Eager to meet and photograph them, Coló approaches a newsstand vendor near the bus station and leaves his business card, trusting him to pass on the message. He also plans to return a few days later—same place, same time. But before he can follow through, he receives a phone call: it’s Miguel. The brothers agree to meet Coló for coffee a few days later.

None of them realize it yet, but this marks the beginning of a journey spanning four years. Initially, Coló considered taking a single photo of the two brothers and possibly starting a broader project centered on twins. However, as his sits in front of them at a café, his focus shifts. “I realized that I couldn't tell their story in a photo,” Coló says. “Their story was bigger than any other twins [project] I could make.”

Coló spent years visiting Miguel and Eduardo regularly, joining them for breakfast, on errands, even at the synagogue. Through this intimate lens, he began to see not just twins but a story of enduring connection, a portrait of life shared in the smallest, most beautiful details.

“Every time I saw them, they inspired me to take another photo… It was a new situation, a new sensation that I wanted to photograph.”

Soon the twins began to let their guard down, embracing the intimacy of being seen; and Coló, in turn, felt a deep sense of purpose in capturing their journey.

“It was great for the three of us,” Coló says. “For me, it was the opportunity to get involved with such a lovely and tender story, a story made of love, of vulnerability, of loneliness, and also of companionship.”

Simple moments of mundane living filled Coló with wonder. One day, months into this work, he noticed two simple bars of soap in the bathroom, something he hadn’t seen before, yet it struck him as beautiful. Miguel and Eduardo’s became a story told in quiet, tender fragments, an ongoing revelation of life shared.

It was a story that often surprised and moved Coló, teaching him to remain amazed, to observe deeply, and to keep seeing. The environmental conditions forced him to use the camera flash: the modest Buenos Aires apartment the brothers shared let in little natural light. But what initially posed a challenge soon became a resource, unlocking expressive potential.

“Using the camera flash was not just a technical solution, but also an expressive instrument,” Coló says, explaining that he didn't want to tell the story in a traditional documentary way. “I realized that their story was so very magical…. and the flash allows me to express that.”

The flash deepened the storytelling and allowed Coló to capture Miguel and Eduardo’s lives in a way that felt true to their essence.

From the beginning, he envisioned his photographs becoming a book, with a structure that reflected the complexity of the story it held. Collaborating with photography curator and consultant Yumi Goto and designer Ricardo Báez, the concept evolved into a non-traditional book that echoed the twins' duality and the symmetry of their lives.

Following a mirrored design, we first encounter moments of profound intimacy and individuality—centered, for example, on the necklaces engraved with their names. Yet it’s impossible to untangle their threads entirely, and before one narrative fades the other begins. Eduardo and Miguel intertwine in countless moments: at home, on the phone, their legs overlap appearing as a single form; quietly contemplating the branches of a tree in perfect harmony; or their heads nearly merging as they gaze at patterns in the wet sand. On the street, one winds his watch while the other checks the time, moving as if guided by an unseen rhythm they instinctively share.

“When I let them they do something as twins, they are like a mirror,” Coló says.

This instinctive unity fascinated Coló, drawing him deeper into the brothers' lives. As he grew to know them, he found himself reflecting on his own life, on his relationships with his siblings, and later with his two sons, all bound by the subtle yet profound ties of family. He realized this project was more than documenting lives—it was about capturing the invisible threads of connection and memory that shape them all.

Reflecting on the years he spent with Miguel and Eduardo, Coló saw how profoundly the experience changed him. He had grown not only as a photographer but as a person, gaining a deeper understanding of love, family, and the delicate art of storytelling. This was not just a body of work—it was a passage, a labor of patience, love and respect, shaped by the grace of time.

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Ignacio Coló is an Argentinian photographer and photo editor based in Buenos Aires. He serves as the director of Estudio TOMA, an agency specializing in visual and digital communications. Previously, he worked as a senior photographer and photo editor at La Nación, one of Argentina’s leading newspapers. His photographs are regularly featured in the media and have been exhibited in both solo and group shows.

Lucia De Stefani is a writer and editor focusing on photography, illustration, and everything teens. She lives between New York and Italy. Find her on Instagram and Twitter.